Types of Energetic Materials

Attend a review of the energetics hydrolysis testing planned for Holston Army Ammunition Plant. Tour facility and observe operations. Holston is a major site for hydrolysis testing of many different types of energetic materials. 

Process Maturity Commercially proven methods are available to extract many types of energetic materials. Additional extraction methods are under development to improve on the efficiency of the existing methods and to allow extraction of energetic materials from previously unprocessable devices. 

General Recommendation 6. Simultaneous processing of different types of energetic materials should not be performed until there is substantial evidence that the intermediates formed from the hydrolysis of aromatic nitro compounds will not combine with M28 propellant additives or ordnance fuze components to form extremely sensitive explosives, such as lead picrate (see General Finding 4). 

General Recommendation 6. Simultaneous processing of different types of energetic materials should not be performed until there is substantial evidence that the intermedi-... 

Propellants also called propergols are intimate chemical mixtures of a fuel and an oxidizer. This particular type of energetic material acts both as the energy source and the propelling agent, hence, they are extensively used as rocket propellants. Propellants are classified according to their physical state as ... 

Depending on the specific types of energetic material that is produced at a given facility, other equipment shonld be on hand for quality control work, as well as research and development work. This conld inclnde light and color analysis for illuminant... 

Types of Energetic Materials. Energetic materials are chemical compounds, or mixtures of chemical compounds, that are divided into three classes according to use explosives, propellants, and... 

The test plan that was executed at Holston Army Ammunition Plant (HAAP) demonstrated that the hydrolysis process for the energetic materials of interest successfully destroyed more than 99.7 percent of the energetics treated. Over 9,500 pounds of energetic materials were destroyed while encountering only the types of problems normally expected during the implementation of a new facility and process. The suite of tests performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and at HAAP covered a range of reaction temperatures and caustic concentrations. Under all these conditions, the destruction of energetics was carried out safely and effectively. 

Table 9.3 shows the measured detonation velocities and densities of various types of energetic explosive materials based on the data in Refs. [9-11]. The detonation velocity at the CJ point is computed by means of Eq. (9.7). The detonation velocity increases with increasing density, as does the heat of explosion. Ammonium ni-trate(AN) is an oxidizer-rich material and its adiabatic flame temperature is low compared with that of other materials. Thus, the detonation velocity is low and hence the detonation pressure at the CJ point is low compared with that of other energetic materials. However, when AN particles are mixed with a fuel component, the detonation velocity increases. On the other hand, when HMX or RDX is mixed with a fuel component, the detonation velocity decreases because HMX and RDX are stoichiometrically balanced materials and the incorporation of fuel components decreases their adiabatic flame temperatures. 

Fig. 5.3 Schematic representation of common initiation and ignition methods of energetic materials. A) Fuse type. B) Electric match type. C) Hot-wire type. D) Percussion / Stab type. E) Exploding-bridgewire type.

In addition to structural (geometric) heterogeneity, characterized by different pore shapes and sizes, activated carbons like all porous solids may present surface energetic heterogeneity (SEH). This heterogeneity is mainly due to the presence of functional groups and strongly bound impurities on the surface of pores, whose characteristics depend on the type of row material used and the conditions of carbonization and activation processes,... 

We note that in molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations we make no approximations other than the ones implied in the interatomic potentials and the fact that the d5mamics of the atoms is purely classical (no quantum effects on the atomie motion). For example, no approximation is made sis to what type of ehemical reaction can or can not occur complex phenomena such as pressure effects, multi-molecular reactions, and relaxation are explicitly described in NEMD. In this sense, the simulations presented here provide a full-physics, full-chemistry description of energetic materials. 

The oxygen balance of any mixtures of any type of oxidizer can be obtained by assuming the oxidized products. Table 4-4 also shows the oxygen balance of oxidizers [OB] and the density p of energetic materials. 

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